Carver Owners Forum

The other week I was winterizing my 355. I have a seaflush kit, a bit pricey for a few pieces of plastic but it does work well and save time.
Anyhow, blow out water and add antifreeze to both a/c systems, check. Generator, check. Port engine check. So far about an hour and a half max from pulling up to the boat. Starboard engine, not check. It wont pull the antifreeze. Ok, I knew I had an impeller going bad, as it would run a bit hotter than port at over 3k rpm. yes, I keep a spare, should be a 90 minute job correct?. Gather the pump replacement kit, tools etc. Looking at the very small space to slip in front of the starboard engine? Lay down extra drop clothes etc. so I don't touch the carpet, looking at the small access to the front of the engine. All ready to climb in, again, looking at the very narrow access to the front of the engine. Looks like plenty of room when I get in there. Double check I have everything within reach due to the VERY tight access. Take a break, ok, I'm ready. No, I cannot slide in the very narrow space!! I pull the part of me that was semi stuck back out, with a few scratches and scrapes, and reevaluate the situation. Disconnect and move genny? No. find someone smaller, maybe, but I'm not huge, 5'10 190 I would need a skinny kid, or remove the heat exchanger. So yes, off comes the exchanger.
So my three hour winterization job turns into eight hours. I guess its a good thing, because I was planning to replace the impeller in the spring, and may have tried to squeak another season after I realized how tough of a job it was on the starboard engine. The impeller was BAD, it only had two half fins left! And don't forget to back flush. I believe the rest of the impeller was stuck in the trans cooler.
The port engine is no problem, plenty of space.

The main reason I share this is, if you have a 355 and you think you can quickly swap the starboard impeller if it fails underway, think again!!!

Oh the joy the thrill the excitement Don't you just love working on some of this stuff!

This is a great post as it speaks to regular preventative maintenance.

Every other year, regardless - I replace ALL of my racors and my impellers. This spring it will be impellers, last spring it was racors. It also helps me to keep a healthy supply of spares should I need something.

Tom, thanks for posting...... What just happened to you is the exact reason I was trying to source some info to install crank mounted pumps.....easy maintenance that will get done so long as there is room.Honestly for all of us that are getting more and more creaky every year and also for the tech guys , the way I see it , if it is clean and easy , you will get a much better job done......

Lyndon670 wrote:Source of the post This is a great post as it speaks to regular preventative maintenance.

Every other year, regardless - I replace ALL of my racors and my impellers. This spring it will be impellers, last spring it was racors. It also helps me to keep a healthy supply of spares should I need something.

Impellers fo me this spring.... for sure both engines and the genny.

I usually do impellers every 5 years however when I bought this boat the main engine impellers were original with1000hrs on them. They looked almost new when I removed them. Volvo must know something the others do not. That being said, the port side was tight but went relatively well. The generator impeller on this one (Kohler, Yanmar diesel) is built to be changed. Easy access and looking me right in the face.

Know how to change them and always have spares on board.

When I moved my newly purchased boat to home port this spring (about a 3 hour ride), the starboard engine started to overheat one mile from my destination. We had to bring her into the slip on one engine (stern first).
We wanted to figure out what was wrong and started with the impeller.
When we pulled the impeller we noticed that it was relatively new. The impeller was recently changed by the 'professionals' at the marina.
When we did a little more investigating to determine the cause of overheating, we pulled off the end caps on the heat exchanger and found the problem. A veritable plethora of chopped up bits and pieces of impeller.
The previous owner probably paid the yard $145.00 USD per hour and they didn't even bother to do the complete job.
One would think; you change a bad impeller, you get rid of the bits and pieces in the system.
Well, after a good flush and some work with a long nose plier, we rectified the problem and she runs at temperature.
Just unfortunate that it didn't happen during the sea trial.
But then again, I am sure we all have stories of stuff missed on the trial.

Something to add. I have always replaced impellers every three years or 200hrs since I was 18 ( many years ago). When we bought this 355 in the spring of 2016, with just about 200 hrs since new, I reviewed all of the service records. Everything was there. Every oil change, every fuel filter change, aux fuel tank replacement, every fuel fill, date and gallons, a trip log of every time it left the slip, start hours and total hours, length of trip in miles and time etc. I have never seen better record keeping. After I removed the starboard raw water pump, it looked like it had never been removed before. The mercury black paint was on the exposed edges of the wear plate. I went back and reviewed the service records this week. I believe the water pump / impeller was the original from 18 years ago!. The Port was replaced about 4 years ago.
My point with this post is, the maintenance records were so complete, and I was so impressed I missed what should have been a regular replacement assuming it must have been done.

18 year old impeller? I am fortunate it didn't fail on me this past season.

I run into that all the time. Ya go and rebuild a 20 year old pump and there's still OEM paint on the bolts. Pretty typical for spark plugs too.

Got a call to assess a twin engine failure in a 355 with Crusaders. It was the perfect storm; the impellers had never been changed, the temp alarms didn't work, the engines were at 3K rpm, the music was full blast, family and friends on board, then the engines stopped. This was at the beginning of the season, out in the middle of nowhere, late in the evening and had to get towed in. Both engines and the entire exhaust system from engines to transom were toast (literally). When dock mates found out what had happened, they mentioned that the owner had just bragged in a dock conversation about impeller replacement, that he hadn't replaced his since new, and that it was a money grab to replace them all the time. You should have seen the cost of that mistake. By the time he finally gave in to the insurance company's refusal to insure stupidity, he had lost his entire boating season and a s**t load of money. I'm sure he'll get a few "I told you so" when he shows up next season. Bet he'll be the first to recommend impeller changes from now on!

Pay now or pay way more later!

Yea... and speaking about records and spark plugs.
One of the things that most impressed me about this particular boat was the 3 ring binders the owner kept on hand containing user guides, maintenance manuals, equipment documentation, etc., etc., etc. Very complete and organized detailing each system. (separate binder for carver user guide, binder for radar, etc.) This is a very good thing to have on hand.
The owner had duplicates of everything... even an extra lock set for the salon sliding door. (which I actually needed to utilize)
Absolutely the cleanest vessel we had seen. He even stored her indoors during the winter. The boat looks new.
Extraordinary record keeping and pristine appearance.
The owner had all of this in place and to Vipers point..when we pulled the plugs..they are original! They had Crusader Blue paint on them! The plugs were 12 years old!
I guess the guy figured that since he used the boat so little (235 hours), there is no sense in changing the plugs.
Crazy.
What's that old adage: "Beauty is only skin deep"